Monday, December 26, 2016

Cards To Myself

As the slow and painful transition from Yankees blog to Padres blog goes underway (along with everything else going on in the world right now) I needed a distraction. So I decided to go buy some Star Wars cards.

Approximately $30 worth actually. This included a rack pack of 2016 Star Wars Rogue One: Mission Briefing, a loose pack of 2016 Star Wars Card Trader, and a blaster box of 2016 Star Wars Rogue One Series One. I went into this break hoping to pull some cool things (and I sure did) and some Jyn Ersos. Maybe I'll even get lucky and pull some Kanans or Rexes? Let's find out.

Part 1: Rogue One: Mission Briefing Rack Pack

Let's start with the product I have the least hope for. As far as I can tell Mission Briefing uses cards printed on heritage/vintage-ish card stock (that's good). But it's mainly just cards of scenes and characters from the seven movies (that's bad). If it's not from the cartoons (or even obscure comics), give me something new gosh darn it! Although one bright spot is that there is a very very very slim possibility for me to pull a Kanan Jarrus (Freddy Prinze Jr.) autograph.

Ooh, Vader. The Darth Vader scene in Rogue One is one of the scariest and best scenes ever filmed in the history of the movie franchise (IMHO). It was a nice wakeup call to how powerful Vader really is.

If you're curious to know what the backs look like, here you go.

Obligatory parallel (of the Gray Squadron variety). This shows that the Rogue One sequel is confirmed.

Obligatory parallel (of the Green Squadron variety). When I think of a Rebel base, I think of that guy on the watch tower.

Ooh, nice insert. Don't know what it's called though.

This is what's known as a "Comic Strips" insert. Done in a style similar to that of comic books. I can't tell if this scene is supposed to be from the original trilogy or Rogue One. The tree and crate suggest it's indeed Rogue One though.

Hey, our second card in the pack that's actually from Rogue One! Featuring Chirrut, a blind man who's powered by the Force (but he's not a Jedi).

I don't have time to go through the rest of the pack so let's end on this nice card featuring a scene from the Clone Wars. Man, can you believe that we're now closer to 2018 than we are to 2008 (#TimeIsLinear)?

Pack 2: Card Trader Loose Pack

Much like Topps Bunt, Star Wars Card Trader is a massively popular (citation needed) mobile phone app where you can collect digital cards. And also like Topps Bunt, Topps decided to release a physical version of Card Trader. A quick eBay search shows that Kanan Jarrus has a card in this so let's see if I can get lucky and pull that (and no I will not show all 6 cards).

Always good to see Poe Dameron leading off a pack of cards.

I was suckered into buying this pack hoping to pull Kanan, this Ackbar is telling me it's...

The only insert from this pack was Film Quotes card. I'm 99.9% sure that there is a "I Know" card by Han Solo out there too.

The only parallel was this blue one which appears to have a scratch-off code on the back. I'd assume it's for the app.

Pack 3: A Blaster Box of Rogue One Series One

Alright, I struck out on getting anything Kanan-related from the past two. Now let's move onto the last portion of this post where there's a 0% chance of pulling something Kanan-related.

The blaster box came with 10 packs and one medallion card.

I managed to land Jyn Erso's main character card which is a huge get.

The other key protagonist Cassian Andor. Here the base version is accompanied by the "Blue Squadron" parallel. I'll be honest, I like these colored parallels, they enhance the base design that's a boring color into something a little better.

The key antagonist Director Krennic (and the Death Star Black parallel) here reinforces my point that the parallels look good because the base cards look boring.

This appears to be what's known as a Character Icon insert. So far I'm getting quite the Jyn hot-box.

More inserts. The Vader is a "Darth Vader Continuity Card," the Death Star is a "Gallery Card," the Erso+X-Wings is a "Montage Card," and the U-Wing is a "Blueprint Card." Got that? Good.

A Heroes of the Rebel Alliance insert of Bodhi Rook, an ex-Imperial Pilot who deflects to the Rebel Alliance to deliver a hologram and message sent by Galen Erso to Jyn Erso.

Villians of the Empire inserts here. Both of these guys wouldn't last two seconds in a fight against Clone Troopers.

The Mon Calamari look a bit different in Rogue One. I'm guessing it's explained somewhere in a book (most likely on Wookiepedia).

When I think of a Rebel base, I think of that guy on the watch tower.

Pff, Clone Troopers are still better.

Blue Leader and Blue Squadron. Don't worry, the other squadrons appear too (or most of them).

During the beginning of the movie I thought that the location they picked for whatever planet this is looks great. I'm curious to know what the actual location used to film this is, it looked bad and kinda nice at the same time. #FutureDwellingGoals?

Oh right, here are what the backs of these cards look like. No details, just a bunch of logos.

I think a key charm to Rogue One is how both sides are kinda bad. Obviously the Empire is the clear villain, but the Rebel Alliance isn't always in the right either. I like it. Adds complexity and really brings out a two-to-tango vibe in a war.

Another Jyn parallel! Is this blaster box a Jyn hot box?

Right, let's skip the rest of the cards and just go ahead to the relic!

Ooh, not quite Jyn Erso but I'll take it. I liked Bodhi well enough for the limited screen time he got in Rogue One.

Maybe this was a Bodhi Rook hot box?

So that was my retail break of Star Wars products. I enjoyed this break immensely. I didn't get any autographs but I did get a nice thick medallion card as well as a lot of cool cards.

I haven't shown all of the cards in this post (obviously) but I've saved a fair amount of scanned cards to be used for future posts.

Bloody Hell! Those are pretty awesome too! If you have some dups leave a message on my blog, becaus eI have some Rogue One and other SW cards that we can trade. Check my SW tag ;)But today is a sad day in the SW Universe..